


An Irrevocable Condition

by notjustmom



Series: Ironstrange [39]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Established Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Some Fluff, Some angst, Temporary Death, basically soul mates if you squint, different timelines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 15:58:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18553021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Years after the events of the Infinity War, the Snap and the Reversal, Strange considers his place in the universe, and who has always meant home for him.





	An Irrevocable Condition

**Author's Note:**

> I have an idea this could be rather long, but who knows?

He groaned contentedly as he lowered himself gingerly into the nearly too hot water, then closed his eyes and leaned back into the embrace that kept him from disappearing completely under the water and considered once again the hows and whys that the two of them of all beings were allowed to find their way home when all was said and done all those years ago.

He had known it was cheating to look at the possible futures on Titan. Mordo would have chided him, would have said he was still too green, that he could not possibly understand all the ramifications of his actions, and if he were honest with himself, and he did tend to think of himself as a honest person, he would have had to agree. However. He had not been as prepared as he should have been for the invasion, and from the moment the New York Sanctum had been crashed into by the all too human version of the Hulk, he knew he would have to pull out every trick from his bag of tricks, and once he interrupted Tony Stark's stroll in the park with Pepper Potts that perfect spring day in -

"Sunshine."

"Hmmm?" Stephen opened his eyes and looked down at the strong, familiar arms that held him upright, and the same sturdy hands that had caught him when he couldn't look at one more broken future, and he had known from that moment what he had to do. It was just his good fortune that the only future he could see where they both ended up surviving was the same future that allowed the universe to continue on as it always had, more or less.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Tony murmured into his damp curls.

"You always were a cheap date, Stark."

"How 'bout a buck and a half then? And what are you talking about, Strange? I've been accused of a lot of stuff in my time, but I've never been a cheap anything."

Stephen froze, as he could sense confusion and panic beginning to build in the man behind him. Damn. Words. Words always managed to catch him in some way, lifetime after lifetime, it was always his words that came between them. Yes, of course, there were those times when nature and chance had cut their time together short, but whenever they had managed to have years together, either by luck or by the design of the universe, which it seemed to be in this current timeline, he always managed to muck it up with the odd misplaced word, or the words he should have spoken, but had gone unsaid.

He cleared his throat and was grateful that Tony was still sitting behind him, when he was well within his rights to already be out of the enormous claw-footed tub, dressed and headed for the safety of his workshop; but he also was aware that Tony didn't move quite so quickly as he had in his younger days and had grown a bit more patient in the years since their return. "Those 14,000,605 futures I saw before I gave up the stone to Thanos?"

"Mmmhmmm?"

"I stopped when I did because I couldn't look anymore." He wanted to turn and face him, tell him everything all at once, but understood it might take some time, and every ounce of his not inconsiderable gifts and powers of persuasion to make him see what he had known since the moment he had forced Tony from his well-deserved retirement, and nearly ended half the universe, in order to have the fragile peace and contentment they'd had for the last decade and a half.

"Once upon a time..." he began, hoping to make Tony laugh, hoping he would be given time to tell him everything that needed to be said this time around. He breathed out a sigh of relief as he felt more than heard the rumble of laughter that escaped from the one person he was meant to love in every timeline that had ever existed, or would one day come to be. "Once upon a time," he repeated in a hush as he felt Tony lean forward just enough to press a kiss to a faded scar on his shoulder.

"You said that, am I to understand that this is going to be a Disneyfied version of some harder truth that you've kept from me all these years?"

At that, Stephen shook his head and managed to turn in the quickly cooling water and face the man he had loved from shortly before the beginning of the beginning until now. He gazed down into the warm brown eyes, and found the same light there, that he always had, in all the millions of dimensions he had glimpsed, and known he would have seen in the timelines he couldn't bear to witness. 

He wanted to remove the slivers of doubt he could see. He knew all too well of the betrayals his love had suffered over time, especially over this last lifetime, and he wished he could simply kiss the pain away, or delete the last twenty-three seconds, and start over, but knew he owed him more than that. He gently held Tony's face in his shivering hands and shook his head again, then whispered, "since the beginning of recorded time, and I suspect, but have no proof of this, I have reason to believe, since even before time was first recorded, we have always met, in every single dimension, and have always loved each other."

Tony raised a decidedly curious, but relieved eyebrow at him and shifted closer to kiss away the worried crinkle between his eyes, then leaned back and asked quietly, "guessing this is a discussion best accompanied by a decent dinner and a couple bottles of better than decent wine?"


End file.
